From quantity to quality, Ninth District states grapple with growing concerns over water

The skylines of America's small towns often offer clues about their
history and development. The dominant church spires of many New
England towns, for example, reflect religion's importance to this
country's early European settlers; and in the Great Plains and other
Western regions, small towns are often marked by a looming, omnipresent
water tower.

This isn't to suggest that Western America is spiritually connected
to water the way New Englanders are spiritually connected to their
churches, but the architectural symbolism is more than coincidence.
"Water availability is a critical issue for our entire state," says
North Dakota Lieutenant Governor Lloyd Omdahl, referring as much
to the future as to the state's history. "It's one of the most urgent
issues of the '90s."

The current fedgazette poll reveals that 82 percent
of Ninth District respondents are concerned about the quality of
their locally available water over the next decade. Also, 87 percent
would be willing to pay additional fees or taxes to ensure the quality
of their drinking water, and 23 percent currently use bottled water
or purification equipment in their homes.

For many in the Ninth District, these concerns about the quality
and quantity of their water are not just idle worries. In southwestern
North Dakota, for example, seven communities are "under sanction"
by the Environmental Protection Agency: If the communities do not
improve the quality of their water within three years, they will
be subject to fines. And in the small town of Kyle, S.D., the community
health clinic must periodically close its doors due to lack of water.
The town's lone water tower often has just half of normal water
pressure, forcing the clinic, a relatively large water user in the
community, to shut down about one day every other month.

Nationally, the availability and quality of water has become an
increasingly important issue, with farms and cities in the West
concerned about quantity, and residents of the east worried about
preserving the quality and supply of their existing water reserves.

In the Ninth District, water issues are as diverse as the region's
terrain. While 100 inches of precipitation falls every year in the
Rocky Mountain range of Montana, most of Montana and the Dakotas
only receive between 12 and 24 inches of precipitation annually
and drought is always a concern. Further east, in the water-rich
regions of Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
conflicts often arise over the proper use of water, whether for
economic development, recreation/tourism or for environmental preservation.

Articles in this issue of the fedgazette discuss
the importance of the Missouri River to Montana and the Dakotas,
some of the problems/issues of the eastern region of the District,
and provide water consumption data for the Ninth District.